Kudos to our Old Dog Haven Ambassadors

Many of our fosters and volunteers show up almost every weekend with their dogs at some kind of outreach event because they want to promote Old Dog Haven and let people know what we’re all about.

Our presence in the Western Washington community is strong thanks to the people who decide that staffing an Old Dog Haven booth at a pet store or other business is an important way to let the community know about ODH and to support our mission.

Nikki and her friends love visitors

And the dogs … they’re the draw. People love seeing our dogs at various events, not only because our dogs are so wonderful, but actually seeing and interacting with an ODH dog dispels the idea that our dogs are all too sick and decrepit to go out visiting. And, even more importantly, seeing our dogs as ambassadors at events encourages people to think about adopting or fostering an older dog.

We’d like to thank every foster, volunteer and dog by name for their time spent at these events, but the list would be too long and I don’t want to leave anyone out. I would, however, like to acknowledge a couple of people here who are the foundation of our weekend excursions:

Noreen Leong (with Gigi), Aaron Davis, and Diane Lee

Aaron Davis, Events Coordinator, assisted by Diane Lee and Chris Partman coordinate all of the events and benefits, which is no small job since these activities take place almost every weekend. Setting up a schedule of events, making sure people who will staff events have supplies, and lining up fosters and volunteers to sit in the booth is just part of what they do. There are Meets and Greets—events done at stores, usually pet stores, large pet fairs like Petpalooza, Poochapalooza (North) Barkefest and others, as well as benefits for ODH put on by various organizations to benefit ODH.

Donna Adams and Genese Harney

And then there’s our intrepid twosome, Donna Adams and Genese Harney, who can be seen every month (rain or shine) in front of a Haggen store (Marysville, Burlington and Stanwood) promoting ODH. These two ladies have been doing this for years because they love talking about ODH.

ODH Rosie wants you to ask her about ODH.

Sparrow came to visit at Pet Central

Stop by and see us at any of the events listed below. There’s an assortment of ODH merchandise for sale as well as information about ODH. We’d love to see you. Bring your dog!

I should also mention Old Dog Haven’s biggest fundraiser of the year, The Walk for Old Dogs, which will be held at Cromwell Park in Shoreline on July 22. We need many volunteers for this event so if you’d like to help, please contact Shirley Stallings, our volunteer coordinator, at shirleys@olddoghaven.org and let her know how you’d like to be part of this extraordinary event. And, if you would like to be one of the wonderful sponsors at the Walk, please email our new Development Director, Karyn Kubo Fleming, at development@olddoghaven.org.

Lucky Charm at Paddywack

Here’s the schedule of events for March-May in case you want to plan ahead:

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Blog Mistress: Ardeth De Vries, author of Old Dog Haven: Every Old Dog Has a Story to Tell, First Light: Animal Voices in Concert, and A Space Between, is President of the Board of Directors of Old Dog Haven, and has lived with special needs senior dogs for over 50 years.

Ardeth also writes articles for the Old Dog Haven website and counsels people about end of-life decisions, grieving, and the care of senior dogs. She has served on the Advisory Board of the Grey Muzzle Organization, and operates her own nonprofit organization, which provides financial assistance for veterinary care of companion animals on Whidbey Island.